A chronicle of my gaming adventures and misadventures with a little bit of everything occasionally tossed in. It covers Flames of War, Warhammer 40k and Fantasy battle, Disposable Heroes, Sky galleons of Mars, Chasepot and Needle Gun, The Sword and the Flame, Warhammer Ancients and many others.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Old Dreadnoughts for 40K Rogue Trader

Hi Kids, It seems there is a trend toward "old stuff is cooler than new stuff" in the world of miniature gaming. I'm not really sure why this is, considering how many improvements have been made in casting, sculpting etc etc.... Maybe it is just because everything was so freakin' cheap 20+ years ago. Although we didn't think so at the time. With this in mind I figured I'd take some pix of my Space Marine Dreadnoughts. This was way on back in the stone age, when a dread was about $7.00 or so. I think they were named things like Chuck, Fred and Ed or something equally amusing.

The first dreadnought I ever built, I was horrified to see it only had a single bolter in its right hand. So I did what every red-blooded American lad would do, fitted it with a surplus heavy weapon; in this case the dreaded "Conversion beamer." This weapon was so bizarre I'm not even sure there were rules for it. Still not a tenth as hellish as the Eldar D-cannon. I'd tell you about it but would probably burst into tears from the memory. I hand painted all the banners on aluminum foil. I'm sure hardcore sci-fi fans recognize the Mobile Infantry unit from Starship Troopers, along with the quote from the Rogue Trader book.

By this time I had come up with my own Legion ("Chapters" are for the wannabees, real men have Space Marine Legions!!!!). The Eighth Shock Assault Legion, aka The Imperial Dicks. Yes, everyone is named Richard. No, nobody wins anything for recognizing the famous quote on the banner. No heavy weapon, what was I thinking?!?!

This is one of the shorter dreads. They also were wide bodies and narrow bodies. You could pick out the details in the blisterpacks.

Another without a heavy weapon? Eye-yi-yi....

Getting tired of black? Howsabout a nifty tiger stripe pattern? I know, I know, where are the heavy weapons.... Also tried out artsy stuff for basing. All my Marines have color coded squad bases, so I never flocked any of them.

I'm out of the "black period" now painting all sorts of flash and details. I was also a big fan of the TV show "The X Files."

A little light camo, I think it looks pretty suave. This might be the only dread with a rocket launcher. Why not a missile launcher? In the immortal words of Tuna, "Missile launchers miss, but rocket launchers rock!" Now don't try to tell me you don't know Tuna....

Another one with a lascannon. So why do I have so many dreads? Cause they're cool of course!! There were games where I used all of them, usually huge games at local conventions. Although I must admit there were Carnage tournaments where I would field 2 five-man scout squads and six dreadnoughts. It did mean I had to toss my standards in the crapper and play that Ultra-cheesey What-in-God's-name-were-they-thinking-when-they-came-up-with-this-crap Blood Angels list. The Death Company? Oh Puh-lease...... Remember the only reason GW invented Necrons was to give BA players something to complain about. Always snub all BA players as power gaming junkies. "Contempt and slight regard," as Shakespeare would say. All my marines are vanilla.

Just as an aside, a long time ago (at least three or four editions) I did the math and found out a normal marine had a 0.8% chance of killing a Death Company marine in one on one combat. Good thing they cost the same!

1 comment:

My favorite is the Contemptor or the "Chuck". It is the one with the twin bolters on both arms. You forgot that he came with a jump pack. Nothing like a dread jumping into a fort and laying waste with the two sets of twin bolters.